Wake : Exploring Co-Located Co-Presence in Virtual Reality

Wake is a Guided Mixed Reality Experience for one participant in-headset, one dancer, and one facilitator. The experience is built in Unity 3D for the HTC Vive, Vive trackers, and an Intel RealSense Depth Camera placed at the position of the participant’s eyes in the headset. The project uses a custom algorithm to stream and render in real-time a high resolution video (synced depth + RGB feeds) of a physically and virtually co-present dancer.

Created in collaboration with the multi-disciplinary performance duo, slowdanger (Anna Thompson and Taylor Knight), this work continues our research inquiry into embodied interaction, immersion and presence, trust within co-present head-mounted XR experiences, and the shifting boundaries between physical and digital.